Dr. Gonzo

Honestly I think James should have a squad role until he can demonstrate he’s not made of glass. If he’s hardly ever available, Chelsea are better off not having to rely on him regularly. Malo Gusto I think has been your most consistently good player (saying that based off whenever I watch Chelsea he’s usually the only player who looks like he gives a fuck) - I don’t see why James should immediately take his spot in the side. I don’t even think James should necessarily be given a role in midfield immediately - Caciedo will come good eventually & Enzo maybe too. I don’t think it matters how good you are as a player if you can’t regularly get matches for the club. So like us with Thiago, you’re better off planning for the future with him as a big question mark. And if he builds fitness up and wins his place back in the team, the manager should worry about where he fits in the team then.

I love that he’s coming back. I hate that the announcement of his return seems to be coupled with FSG seemingly looking to get into multi-club ownership - I think multiclub ownership should be banned.

Yeah, it is a conspiracy theory. But a conspiracy theory doesn't mean something is bullshit, the word conspiracy just means there's a secret plot to do something & a theory is just having a theory about a possible conspiracy. The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was a conspiracy - people conspired to kill the king. It's not like I'm saying "Man City are the reason we all think this flat earth we live on is round." The fact that bad decisions are just now accepted as the norm just makes it all the more easy to get away with continually giving City benefits with bad decisions - so that's a pretty easy way to explain every other bad decision. The media angle's not that weird - when match of the day spends a significant amount of time bitching about one wrong decision while ignoring others to try to whip up a narrative into place and we're an easy club to whip a narrative up about - just ask Kelvin McKenzie, the Sun, and the Tories. Did match of the day do anything similar with this penalty decision as they did with the dissection of the drop ball? I genuinely don't know, but my guess is nah they didn't. My guess it was just the media wanking over how good of a match it was, because that's most of what I've seen in the media about it. Funnily enough, most Liverpool fans I know weren't trying to "prove" anything with the goal. About half said "yeah Tierney fucked up, but the cunt owes us for the last few years" and others said "yeah Tierney fucked up, he didn't notice Yates karate kick Konate in the head" - maybe twitter and reddit have different narratives, but that's social media not the actual media (and the actual media's more influential). I think officials do give a fuck about what's said about them, otherwise they wouldn't ask broadcasters to tone down the vitriol. And they probably wouldn't issue out statements where they say "whoopsy we fucked up, and we've apologised to the club in question." They want the respect of players, managers, and fans, simply because of their role as authority figures... regardless of whether or not they actually deserve any respect based off their performances in their jobs. I don't think there's any legitimate reason for them to continue the practice of allowing referees to moonlight for leagues owned by people who own clubs in our league. They either don't have any understanding of what a "conflict of interest" is - in which case, they probably shouldn't have any role in an industry worth billions and should be replaced by people who have bare understanding of wanting to appear transparent and ethical. Or they're simply lacking in ethics. Neither is really acceptable.

No I haven't, that "cheque complete" comment is because until I'm given any sort of evidence from PMGOL that these referees are just too bad to do their jobs (which is only marginally better), I'm going to keep thinking they're corrupt. I have a few reasons: Man City have a history of being pretty flexible with rules and at this point... haven't faced consequences for it Man City have won league titles on the back of the fine margins coming from poor refereeing decisions in the past I have a hard time believing that referees could be this bad at their jobs - and because of point 2, they don't have to give every decision to City. They just have to give enough decisions that can make a difference over the course of a season. City seem to regularly benefit from these "errors" going their way far more than other clubs do If PMGOL isn't interested in transparency or giving the appearance that the officials aren't ethically compromised, I suspect that's because a closer inspection of what on its face is a blatant conflict of interest is in fact a serious conflict of interest that throws the illusion of integrity in the league out the window. And honestly, the media doesn't help. Them making a big song and dance about Tierney's error against Forest with that drop-ball incident despite it being at least consistent with how Tierney did the same exact thing to Forest's advantage... and also sort of disregarding that Tierney should probably have called a foul for Yates quite literally kicking Konate in the face rather than attempt to play the ball... while doing it's best to quickly move on and disregard this decision - it simply doesn't do a lot for me not to think the PMGOL is telling the media to help cover for them. And they've got an interest in protecting the illusion of integrity as well: after all, if this conflict of interest is inspected and demonstrates the league is bent - it's easily the biggest scandal in British football. It tarnishes the image of the league, thus the product they're selling. I'm not a court of law, so there's no presumption of innocence until proven guilty with me. So I'm presented with 2 options: Referees are laughably inept and so woefully bad at everything they do that it's a wonder they can even wipe their own arses after they shit The appearance of a blatant conflict of interest is more than just an appearance of a blatant conflict of interest: it is a conflict of interest. If officials were interested in taking wind out of the sales of "these officials are bought and paid for," there's a pretty simple solution for them: ban the practice of English referees being allowed to referee in foreign leagues. If that's too much of a ban and impacts the finances of referees too negatively (I don't think it does though, if you look at their salaries), then I think most people would settle for: ban the practice of English referees being allowed to officiate in foreign leagues owned by anyone who owns a team in the English football pyramid. But until they take the common sense approach to protect the integrity of their officials, I'm going to have to question the integrity of their officials. And this is all not even considering for the fact that: 1.) Pep cheated as a player with that doping scandal; 2.) there's evidence Barca paid referees while Pep was manager - and just looking at his time as City's manager. But if you want me to consider those facts as well, I'm happy to do so.

Is there? If they’ve led themselves open to those accusations, then they subsequently get hit with these accusations it’s more just the consequences of their actions.

Is he still serving a ban? Has he been involved in the summer transfers? I do think Spurs' recruitment has been very good over the last few years, it's just one of those things though - had the recruitment been this good right after that CL final, would Spurs have needed to rebuild with the Conte/Mourinho projects - and then further rebuild in the post-Kane life with Ange? I think Spurs are one of the best in the world at long-term planning. It's the short term planning and getting around that final corner to be genuine contenders for the league and really giving every trophy a go that sort of fucks them over. That sacking Mourinho before a final stuff was probably done in the interest of long term planning, but for as much as I don't like his brand of football - and I do think it's from a different era to the very top managers of today & just isn't as effective... I still don't see why they wouldn't have given him a shot to win the final he took the team to when Spurs had been so long without winning something. It's not the worst thing in the world to be better at long-term planning than short term planning - comparing how you're run to say Man Utd or Chelsea and I think most people with braincells would say that you're the better run club of the 3. But it's just so hard to find that right balance between planning for what's best 2-5 years from now and also making decisions that will impact the competitiveness of the club on the pitch in the current season - it's a big struggle I think for all clubs that aren't state owned and have to operate with the financial constraints that come with not being a propaganda piece/tourism advertisement. I think looking at Ange's record, he historically starts doing a lot better with what he's got at a club in his second season. And I think that's got to be very exciting as a Spurs fan because he plays football that's exciting and entertaining, it's just really been consistency holding you back from being genuine contenders. But it'll be interesting to see if Spurs can add a bit more in the coming summer to help him out and get Spurs competing for the top honours they are desperate to win. But I think Spurs have found the man for them that can probably perform really well for them at manager over the next few seasons. And I agree with you, the work done over the past few years has meant you've gotten some very nice signings made that have helped you out. But because of how this fucking league is and who everyone has to compete with, there's also very much a need to get stuff right for the short term that can give the squad the shot in the arm it needs to make the next step up. But I don't think Spurs are as far off as some clubs that have dreams of being contenders, so it's just a matter of getting those fine margins just right and having a very good transfer window that has that right balance of working towards long term goals and short term goals.

I think this just proves the people running Chelsea are absolutely mental, which most of us already knew. And that the people running Newcastle and Man Cheaty are liars and cheats, which most of us already knew. Looks like Newcastle are slightly more convincing liars though than Cheaty though.

See the thing is, if they're allowing something that's rightly received criticism for being easily perceived as a massive conflict of interest on its face... I think they don't really get to avoid criticism of possibly having that conflict of interests conflicting with their ability to properly do their jobs. If PMGOL doesn't like the ethics of their officials being put in question, they shouldn't have let referees have their ethics come into question by having some basic standards to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. It's a billion pound industry - having some ethical standards regarding conflicts of interest when massive amounts of money are in question (not even billions) is not only normal. It's basically an accepted standard. When you've got referees flying to foreign countries midweek before important matches they're refereeing (in this case between two title rivals), getting paid by the owner of one of those clubs, and then they make an error like that... they've invited criticism about whether or not these officials are corrupted and not simply too inept to do their jobs. PMGOL has put referees in this position and they only have themselves and their referees to blame. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt once they actually do something to remove the appearance of a conflict of interest, but until then... considering the way PMGOL choses to operate, I don't see why they deserve any benefit of the doubt in 2024. It's on them to do better if they want to be perceived better.

This is genuinely funny though

Spent a few days in Puerto Vallarta - pretty nice place

Cheque complete

And also as a follow up @Storts - I’m sure next season is going to be a lot tougher for the players, the young players and the senior players without Klopp. I think he’s not just a good tactician he’s an incredible man manager. I’m gutted he’s leaving but I’m enjoying the season.

I don’t think you get some of these performances without having a decent amount of quality. Whether they are consistent enough to play like this without Klopp, who knows. But for their age, I don’t think you can just seemingly fit in with first team players without that quality. So I think it’s a good sign to have so many young players look good enough to keep us in a title race, regardless of who the manager is. We’ve had injuries kill other seasons under Klopp, after all.

We were brilliant but unlucky - but I’ll still take a point. Biggest thing was not losing. I think despite not being more clinical, that second half was a very good sign. If we can dominate a side like City over 45 minutes we are very good team.

I thought I was going to have a heart attack

Getting a ref that takes side gigs out in your owner’s other league to ignore blatant last minute penalties isn’t really gifting us anything. Pep is a bald fraud, perfect for Man Cheaty

Pretty sure the “injury” delays it more

Go see what De Bruyne’s thoughts on it are because even in Belgium their football fans have more soul and spirit than Mancs

Ffs

We’ve played in Europe against big teams forever so it’s not something that’s new, shocking, or offensive to us. Maybe when you buy a few more CLs you’ll feel the same.

It’s funny city fans are obsessed with that even though your fans did the same shit to our coaches and City had to issue 2 apologies and no Liverpool fans really give a fuck.

Edwards coming back - https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11669/13091198/liverpool-michael-edwards-return-set-to-be-confirmed-with-ex-bournemouth-man-richard-hughes-also-set-to-join

I’d play him at LB because I think Chilwell is dogshit tbh

Isn’t it mental how Pep Guardiola is the biggest cunt in football, irredeemably, in a world where Alex Ferguson exists?

I don't understand why they hired him back to take over a worse side than the first time around when they sacked him for not being good enough.